Desserts

This sweet treat is the result of an ice cream “hack” requested by my wife. While on vacation in Maine a few weeks ago, she fell head-over-heels for a fruit streusel ice cream with cardamom made by one of our favorite ice cream makers, Mount Desert Island Ice Cream. Not a day goes by during our annual camping trip to Acadia National Park, that we don’t swing into Bar Harbor for a quick stop at MDIIC. Along with terrific versions of standards like coffee, strawberry and chocolate, they offer innovative and excellent flavors such as “Miso Caramel”, “Bay of Figs”, and the inspiration for this creation, “Berry-Cardamom Streusel”. We regularly try out new flavors at each visit, so when I noticed her returning to berry-streusel again and again, I knew her ask for a home-made version wouldn’t be long in coming.

To satisfy her request, I turned to my long trusted ice cream muse, Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni’s Ice Cream. I’ve made her Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream many times to rave reviews, and figured that a simple swap of blueberries for blackberries in the jam-swirl would be a logical first step in my hack. Beyond that, I crafted and baked a quick and simple streusel of oats, flour, butter and brown sugar. To both elements I added generous sprinklings of ground cardamom, and then swirled the jam and streusel into a vanilla ice cream base as I spooned it into a freezer safe container just after churning.

The result? While my version lacked the intensity of cardamom of the MDIIC version (perhaps I’ll try using fresh cardamom pods/seeds next time rather than pre-ground), by every other measure the hack was a screaming success. The smooth, rich ice cream punctuated by the bright, jammy fruit swirl and the delicate crunch of the streusel was a winning combination. So much so that Momo, our soon to be launched college freshman, made quick work of the first batch and made a special request for an encore to be served at her final meal home with family before heading off to school. Once she’s gone, I’ll probably end up making a third batch so that my wife can finally fully enjoy the product of her crave-worthy request.

Instructions

for the streusel:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Stir together the flour, oats, sugar, cardamom and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut in the cold butter until the butter is reduced to pea-sized pieces. Spread the mixture out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Break up any large clumps into 1/4 to 1/2 inch sized crumbs.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Stir occasionally to prevent burning, bringing the corner pieces into the center. Let cool completely, then freeze until you are ready to use. This makes about 3 cups and will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month. You may choose to use less than the full 3 cups as a mix-in, if so, reserve the rest for snacking!

for the blueberry sauce:

Combine the berries and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Boil until the mixture reaches 220 degrees, or until it slightly thickens and the berries smash easily, about 7 minutes. Let it cool slightly, then force through a sieve to remove most of the seeds and skins. Refrigerate to chill before using.

for the ice cream:

Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.

Whisk the cream cheese and the salt in a medium bowl until smooth.

Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup, and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Gradually whisk the hot cream mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

When fully chilled, remove the vanilla bean and pour the ice cream base into your ice cream machine and process per the manufacturers instructions.

When scooping the finished vanilla ice cream into a freezer safe container, alternate scoops of the ice cream with spoonfuls of the sauce and streusel, and "swirl" with the blade of a butter knife to evenly distribute the two mix-ins. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

I had never heard of posset before until my friend and co-worker Annie Petito developed this recipe last year for Cook’s Illustrated. It’s dead simple to make, and quickly became one of my all-time favorite recipes from the test kitchen. You can enjoy it anytime, but I find it particularly welcome this time of year as it’s light, lemony essence just seems to shout SPRINGTIME!

I first encountered Gateau Breton (Brittany Cake) years ago when living in France, and was smitten from my first bite. It’s a simple yet pretty cake, rich in butter, and with a texture that lies somewhere between shortbread and a poundcake. As the name implies, it hails from the Brittany region of France, which occupies the far western edge of the country abutting the Atlantic Ocean. It is here, along the Guérande Peninsula, that Bretons produce the famed sea salt, Sel de Guérande.

As much as I love a good pumpkin pie, when my wife requested a “pumpkin dessert” to serve at a dinner party we had last weekend, I found myself fishing about for something that was a twist on the traditional. I found this deeply flavorful and quite beautiful tart in Bon Appetit’s November 2015 issue, and just from the picture in the magazine knew we were in for a treat. The secret to this little number is the caramel you make as part of the filling. It adds such a great depth and complexity to the confection, that I’m quite certain my next slice of standard issue pumpkin pie will taste meh by comparison. As always when making caramel, taking care to let it cook until its the color of an Irish Setter dog and is just whisping smoke, will be the difference between a good and GREAT result. Pulling the caramel from the heat while still too pale will produce a filling with much less depth of flavor. Trust me on this. Take it a little further than feels totally comfortable, and you’ll be amply rewarded with a richly flavored result.

I’ve had a lot of time to catch up on food magazine reading over the past few weeks as the Northeast has been pounded with FOUR significant snowstorms that have kept us all locked up and out of harm’s way. As luck would have it I had all of the ingredients for this special treat on-hand during the first of these big snow events, which was a blizzard that dropped 31″ of snow on us, and required that we stay put for 3 days until a plow could finally reach us and clear the drive.

Now that most people’s New Year’s resolutions about eating healthier and shelling out for a gym membership have been summarily dismissed, how about we get back to some fun, sugar and fat fueled cooking. I made this little number as a dessert over the holidays – just about mid-binge – and it was a solid hit with everyone at the table. The meal we had just enjoyed was similarly rich (in good holiday form) so I was a little concerned that talk of dessert would be met with moans and pleading from the table that no one could stand to eat another bite.

This past week I committed the cardinal sin of food shopping, the very thing I urge all of my "Cooking Matters" students to avoid.

I went shopping while hungry. Starving actually, if I'm to be totally honest with you all.

While racing from point A to point B last Thursday, I zipped into my farmer's market (with my stomach at full growl) to grab some fresh produce to tide me over for a few days. A sample of a fresh from the tree local peach sent me into full craving mode and rather than buy a single 3 pound box for eating fresh, I decided to pick up two. Like I said, NEVER shop hungry!

These little darlings were inspired by a post I saw on Deb Perelman's awesome blog, Smitten Kitchen. The technique I employed is basically the same as hers, but I added a few extra steps by making my own ice cream, then not able to leave well enough alone, a batch of pressure cooker dulce de leche to kick these babies into the stratosphere.

Please don't click past this recipe because of it's less than appealing name….you'll be VERY sorry if you do, I can promise you that. These delightful little nuggets are from the Bantam Bread Bakery in Bantam, CT and come to us courtesy of the R.S.V.P. feature in the May 2014 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. R.S.V.P is where reader's write in to request that the magazine ferret out the recipes from their favorite restaurant meals.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but there is just too much good food in the world.

Every day I seem to add to my list of recipes to try – some pulled from magazines, others clipped from favorite websites. There are some recipes that I've had in my "to cook" queue for years now and I am starting to wonder "will I ever get to them?"

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I started Oui, Chef a few years back as a means to chronicle my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food